Disneyland to introduce MaxPass (New Fastpass & New Fastpass Attractions) - Now with Poll

[mom2rtk]

And that's the great thing about this new system - if you are tight on funds and do not wish to spend money on data / phones / chargers / maxipass then you don't have to - you still have access to the legacy fastpass system. It's win/win - those who want to take advantage of the added convenience can / those who do not wish do aren't required to

Disney is a business, nobody is entitled to anything for free - the laws of supply and demand will be the judge and jury on what Disney can and cannot charge for

Unless (like me) you think the mere presence of the digital system means the entire fastpass pool with go much faster every day regardless of whether you choose to use it or not.

I'm going to start a drinking game. Every time some reminds me Disney was a business, I'm going to take a drink. Good thing I'm not driving.

 

[Aladora]

I'm going to start a drinking game. Every time some reminds me Disney was a business, I'm going to take a drink. Good thing I'm not driving.

I'll join you but only if we can add taking a drink every time someone says that this is not what Walt would have wanted or that Walt would be rolling over in his grave!

 

[mom2rtk]

I'll join you but only if we can add taking a drink every time someone says that this is not what Walt would have wanted or that Walt would be rolling over in his grave!

Seems only fair!

 

[cmph]

Wait, so the parks DO have WiFi for the CMs to use? someone said that, maybe a couple pages back. Then why can't they do what they do on the cruiseships - and let you connect to that WiFI just for the app? DCL's app is free to use when connected to the ship's WiFi. You just have to pay for WiFi use for anything outside of their app. I'm not a tech person, so I'm probably overlooking issues with that (and yes, I do realize the footprint of the parks is far larger than the ship). But it seems like they need to figure something out before they roll out app enhancements they want people to buy.

 

[PerfessorZ]

For those concerned about FP availability decreasing as a result of the MaxPass, it may be a bit of wash if they ultimately combine the parks in the FP system. Since nobody would be able to hold simultaneous FPs, the pool of FPs would be essentially bigger. Now, not everyone park hops to be able to hold simultaneous FPs, but not everyone will shell out $10 for MaxPass, either.

 

[TexasTerri]

What will happen to the FP queues when my app won't open, your battery is dead, the next guy digs through his backpack to find his phone, etc. I see huge delays and longer waits, at least initially. I loved my magic band at WDW. That would seem more efficient to me. I work for the company that provides wireless service to Disney. It's a huge corporation but I'm going to try to find out if perhaps WIFI is in the works anytime soon.

 

[GatorChris]

Actually, the F! Dining package costs more than a regular meal...I just did it last week. On the other hand, it includes an appetizer, which most "meals" (as defined by the standard Disney Dining Plan) don't include. So it's kind of a wash, but also a LOT of food.

That's too bad that it costs more. I know in the past, and this was back in 2012, I just used a TS credit off the DDP. Instead of booking a regular TS, I booked the F! dinner package. It came with a meal (we'd choose H&V), and then get those seats on the right hand side. I had hoped that would stick around for a while.

 

[hsmamato2]

this seems like a money grab....why charge to use it?

 

[pharmama]

Sarcasm here: But, Disneyland already fixed the battery problem with their portable battery charging machines they installed recently . You can get one for $30. :-/

This is a bit of a tangent but.... I found the Fuel Rod system to be awesome when we were in the parks last week. I would have been happier if I had purchased the initial fuel rod outside of the parks and paid $20 instead of $30 but $30 isn't that bad. Once you pay the initial price, you get a fuel rod with a bunch of adapters. You can recharge the fuel rod yourself once you're out of the parks but you can also go to one of the fuel rod machines anywhere in the park, drop in your drained fuel rod and have it spit out a new, fully charged one ready to use (no cost for unlimited swapping, just the initial $30). I only take what will fit in my pockets to the parks. The fuel rod was small enough for this and the swapping allowed such a small charger to still be viable to keep my phone, my DD's phone and MIL's phone charged.

 

[az4boys]

I think after posting "We’ll have more information to share soon on how Disneyland Resort Annual Passholders will be able to take advantage of Disney MaxPass" more times than I can count, Erin gave up on responding to the blog post and left us all to speculate. I wish the timing of the announcement would have been a little different, or they had more complete information. The 13 month AP offer has me thinking about getting AP's for our family. It would be our first and possibly only time to do this. We haven't been for four years but I was going to make it our year of Disney and go as often as possible. The uncertainty over Maxpass and how much it will really cost us is making it really hard to decide. We are a family that collects fast passes and use them often and the idea of not running around the parks is awesome (my DH usually ends up with that job). The idea of adding $60/day to our trip costs is not awesome.

 

[Mysteryincorp]

i would assume that all this Max pass means is that you dont have to walk to the kiosk to grab your fast pass. I would assume the number of fast passes would remain the same because all that is changed is that you dont have to physically walk to to the kiosk. I don't think there will be a large bottleneck of people walking into the park and staring at their phone. You walk in step aside grab the fast pass you want then continue on your day just as it has always been. Really how much is this going to change things? How long would it take to walk to any kiosk in the park.....20 minutes tops? So that means the people who get MP can get their FP approx 20 minutes faster than they could before? How is this such a big deal? Why are people so upset? The PP that ranted on and on about how this is the last straw yada yada yada, don't buy it. It's a mere convenience offered by Disney and while I agree, I think it's ridiculous they are charging for a very minimal convenience, whatever. I don't think it going to make that significant of a difference. Of course, I am making assumptions and I could be wrong and it's only my opinion and blah blah blah but I truly think this is not going to change things significantly.
I am irritated by the Matterhorn FP, that has always been my go to ride. The line moves quickly because of no fastpass, even when it is wrapped all the way around the mountain.

 

[LizzyS]

I also kind of doubt that fastpasses are going to run out in record time, but will they go faster? I'm sure they will as they're even easier to obtain.

Maybe you're right about the Matterhorn, maybe I don't want FP there. That's my favorite ride at DLR!

 

[mom2rtk]

this seems like a money grab....why charge to use it?

That's a rhetorical question, right?

 

[mom2rtk]

I think after posting "We’ll have more information to share soon on how Disneyland Resort Annual Passholders will be able to take advantage of Disney MaxPass" more times than I can count, Erin gave up on responding to the blog post and left us all to speculate. I wish the timing of the announcement would have been a little different, or they had more complete information. The 13 month AP offer has me thinking about getting AP's for our family. It would be our first and possibly only time to do this. We haven't been for four years but I was going to make it our year of Disney and go as often as possible. The uncertainty over Maxpass and how much it will really cost us is making it really hard to decide. We are a family that collects fast passes and use them often and the idea of not running around the parks is awesome (my DH usually ends up with that job). The idea of adding $60/day to our trip costs is not awesome.

I think they put it out there to let it percolate in everyone's heads before they announce the new round of ticket price increases in February.

 

[TexasTerri]

I do like the concept, but at $10 per day per person it's too much for my family of 5 to spend. If it flops perhaps they will offer a multi-day discount like they're doing with the new WDW Express Transportation, (another example of an optional fee for something that is free by throwing in a few small enhancements.) Or even better, they could reduce the price like they did after Disney After Dark's initial failure.

 

[lk2500]

I asked some questions a few pages ago that I am still not clear on so I'll try again....

1) Will the 2 sides still be disconnected for MaxPass or will you be able to just have one MaxPass at a time no matter what park it's in? Will there never be disconnected rides like Buzz was last June? I see it mentioned here a few times so I'm assuming nobody really knows yet....

2) Can you use FastPass and MaxPass interchangeably or is it one or the other? Could I start using MaxPass and then start grabbing FastPasses later in the day if my phone died or the system goes down or I just happened to be walking by a FastPass machine and it was more convenient?

 

[pudinhd]

I asked some questions a few pages ago that I am still not clear on so I'll try again....

1) Will the 2 sides still be disconnected for MaxPass or will you be able to just have one MaxPass at a time no matter what park it's in? Will there never be disconnected rides like Buzz was last June? I see it mentioned here a few times so I'm assuming nobody really knows yet....

2) Can you use FastPass and MaxPass interchangeably or is it one or the other? Could I start using MaxPass and then start grabbing FastPasses later in the day if my phone died or the system goes down or I just happened to be walking by a FastPass machine and it was more convenient?

I am not sure anyone has any 100% definite answers until the implementation. 1 - From what I am reading, you should only be able to have one MaxPass at a time no matter what park it's in. 2 - You can only use one system, not both.

 

[Niltiac]

I asked some questions a few pages ago that I am still not clear on so I'll try again....

1) Will the 2 sides still be disconnected for MaxPass or will you be able to just have one MaxPass at a time no matter what park it's in? Will there never be disconnected rides like Buzz was last June? I see it mentioned here a few times so I'm assuming nobody really knows yet....

2) Can you use FastPass and MaxPass interchangeably or is it one or the other? Could I start using MaxPass and then start grabbing FastPasses later in the day if my phone died or the system goes down or I just happened to be walking by a FastPass machine and it was more convenient?

1) I don't think any thing definite has been announced one way or the other. The way some of Disney's responses to questions have been worded makes me think they are considering connecting the two parks so you can only have one FP at a time, but they're being vague so that makes me think they haven't decided yet.
2) I believe I saw Disney respond to this question with a no, you can only use one system or the other for the full day.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I asked some questions a few pages ago that I am still not clear on so I'll try again....

1) Will the 2 sides still be disconnected for MaxPass or will you be able to just have one MaxPass at a time no matter what park it's in? Will there never be disconnected rides like Buzz was last June? I see it mentioned here a few times so I'm assuming nobody really knows yet....

2) Can you use FastPass and MaxPass interchangeably or is it one or the other? Could I start using MaxPass and then start grabbing FastPasses later in the day if my phone died or the system goes down or I just happened to be walking by a FastPass machine and it was more convenient?

I don't think the first question has a definitive answer yet, but the belief is that the parks will be connected so you can only get one FP at a time, regardless of the which park it's for. My guess is that there won't be any disconnected rides, but that has yet to be seen.


As for the second question, I think I've read that it's one or the other, but not both.

 

[lk2500]

1) I don't think any thing definite has been announced one way or the other. The way some of Disney's responses to questions have been worded makes me think they are considering connecting the two parks so you can only have one FP at a time, but they're being vague so that makes me think they haven't decided yet.
2) I believe I saw Disney respond to this question with a no, you can only use one system or the other for the full day.

If this is going to be the case (especially connecting the parks) then I am officially not a MaxPass fan. If they do end up doing this I would assume it would be the same for FastPasses - one at a time for both sides.